The Forks of the Thames
March 2, 1793: Simcoe Arrives at the Forks
In September 1792, three months after Simcoe's arrival in Upper Canada, the lieutenant-governor ordered the construction of a road from Burlington Bay to the forks of the Thames River. The road was named Dundas Street, after Sir Henry Dundas, secretary of state for the Home Department. Dundas Street was intended by Simcoe to be the route that would both direct the settlement from lake Ontario into the interior and be a vital military corridor for the British regiments.
On March 2, Simcoe made a planned stop at the location that he had promised as the ideal site for the new capital of Upper Canada. It was recorded in their journal that day: "We struck the Thames at one end of a low flat island enveloped with shrubs and trees; the rapidity and strength of the current were such as to have forced a channel through the mainland, being a peninsula, and to have formed the island. We walked over to a rich meadow, and at its extremity came to the forks of the river".
Click on the descriptions below to view photographs I took
in the summer of 1993.
East from Wharncliffe Road Bridge
North from Dundas Street Bridge
East from Wharncliffe River Bank
Kensington Bridge Southwest from Dundas Street Bridge
Southwest from Kensington Bridge
Southwest from County Jail
Northwest from County Jail
Southwest Aerial
Southeast Aerial
Early Maps and Illustrations
Smallman and Ingram
London, Canada West Published by E. Whitefield 1855
The above excerpt is from London Postponed: John Graves Simcoe and His Capital in the Wilderness, and was written by John Mombourquette, President of the London and Middlesex Historical Society. It is published in Simcoe's Choice, Celebrating London's Bicentennial, edited by Guy St. Denis and printed by Dundrun Press. The London and Middlesex Historical Society compiled in Simcoe's Choice a special set of essays touching on various aspects of London's History since 1793. The book is available in London bookstores or by contacting the Society.
The description of Simcoe's journey is partly drawn from Edward Baker Littlehale's journal, a complete footnote may be found in Simcoe's Choice.
Photographs by Debra RogersThe London and Middlesex Historical Society
